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Something weird happened with me today. I have an Early-2011, 13 inch MacBook Pro running OS X Mountain Lion. I recently installed Ubuntu on my device, and I am currently using the Refit boot loader. I did a fresh install of mountain lion not long ago (before installing Ubuntu), and everything was working fine. Today, however, I realised that I cannot access the RecoveryHD partition. I tried booting to it from Refit by pressing the option key, in both cases the partition existed but selecting it booted OS X. Also, amidst all this, my Mac suddenly couldn't find any output sound devices anymore. My sound settings say "No output device found". I tried resetting the PRAM, when I did so I heard the boot chime, so I guess my speakers are working. I also tried connecting headphones; same result

Unless you have a VERY good reason to be running Ubuntu natively on the MBP, I would recommend installing and running it through a virtualization software like the freely available VirtualBox or paid versions of VMWare Fusion/Parallels..

You might want to go back and do a clean re-install of Mountain Lion and remove Refit and ensure the OS X works and then install Ubuntu through a VM..

Unless you have a VERY good reason to be running Ubuntu natively on the MBP, I would recommend installing and running it through a virtualization software like the freely available VirtualBox or paid versions of VMWare Fusion/Parallels..

You might want to go back and do a clean re-install of Mountain Lion and remove Refit and ensure the OS X works and then install Ubuntu through a VM..

I don't see why running Ubuntu natively on my Mac is a problem? From what I've seen online, people have done it and it doesn't seem to cause problems. Also, what does this have to do with the audio output on my laptop?

Linux tends to a brute when installing itself on any computer (as someone who uses it for work all the time and has been using it for 15+ years, I've seen all sorts of things) and since Boot Camp doesn't official support Linux, you end up having to go through extra steps to install Linux and there are lot of sideeffects, apart from losing your recovery partition to whatever else..

I use Ubuntu on my iMac through VMWare Fusion and it works brilliantly when I configure the VM to use 4GB of memory and 2 cores on my i7, 16GB iMac..

For everyone that doesn't have a problem, there are those (like yourself) that do have problems..

Linux tends to a brute when installing itself on any computer (as someone who uses it for work all the time and has been using it for 15+ years, I've seen all sorts of things) and since Boot Camp doesn't official support Linux, you end up having to go through extra steps to install Linux and there are lot of sideeffects, apart from losing your recovery partition to whatever else..

I use Ubuntu on my iMac through VMWare Fusion and it works brilliantly when I configure the VM to use 4GB of memory and 2 cores on my i7, 16GB iMac..

For everyone that doesn't have a problem, there are those (like yourself) that do have problems..

I don't think the problem is from Ubuntu, I think it might be from refit. When I installed refit I had firevault turned ON so it didn't show up while booting. I found some kind of a fix online which required running some terminal commands (I do not remember what exactly, but I remembered accessing the recovery partition). I am thinking that this might be what caused the problem. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure if I accessed the Recovery partition after installing Ubuntu or not. My point is, I just mentioned this to give you an idea of what I have done, I am not suggesting that it is the problem. I have had linux for like a month now, and I used it interchangeably with OS X for a while without any problems. Why did the sound issue come up now? Also, I just realised that the RecoveryHD partition gets mounted automatically every time OS X is booted. I checked its contents and attached a screenshot with this post. Is it normal?

Would suggest trying to see if you can boot to the recovery partition by using the command and R keys. The option key, even with a normal install of ML is not going to get you to the recovery partition.

Would try an SMC reset for the audio problems.

I would also run Linux in a VM.

How come the option key won't get me to the recovery partition? Is it something in ML? So if I see the RecoveryHD partition there it means there is something wrong? I tried using the command + R, it gave me a page that said internet recovery. Is there a way for me to restore my recovery partition? cause I think it got damaged or something. The fact that it is being mounted as a normal disk onto my mac and I can view its contents in finder made me think it might be corrupt or something.
I noticed someone changed the name of my thread... Again, it isn't an issue with Linux/MacOSX dual boot. I think the issue, as I said in my previous post, is with refit. Specifically while installing it I might have ruined my recovery partition cause I think the fix I found online included accessing something related to the boot loader from the recovery partition. Again, I did that like a month ago and i don't remember what exactly I did with refit.

Turn rEFIt off and run a test to see if you can boot to Recovery. Do you know how to turn off rEFIt without reinstalling?

In case you don't here's how:

Use your Finder and go to: Macintosh HD/EFI

Rename the EFI folder to something like "EFI_save" or whatever. Reboot your machine. The rEFIt boot loader will be turned off. Now reboot again but this time hold down the command + r keys to see if you can get into recovery. To turn rEFIt back on, just rename the folder back to the original.

Turn rEFIt off and run a test to see if you can boot to Recovery. Do you know how to turn off rEFIt without reinstalling?

In case you don't here's how:

Use your Finder and go to: Macintosh HD/EFI

Rename the EFI folder to something like "EFI_save" or whatever. Reboot your machine. The rEFIt boot loader will be turned off. Now reboot again but this time hold down the command + r keys to see if you can get into recovery. To turn rEFIt back on, just rename the folder back to the original.

I will try this now, I'm just backing everything I have in preparation for a full reinstall of all my OSs. Speaking of which, is there any good tool that can back up and restore my installed applications without backup up everything else (like users and settings and stuff)? I use time machine, but since I am going to be performing a fresh installation I prefer to start clean. It's just that I have some apps that I purchased (not through app store) and I wana kind of keep track of what they are.

On the issue of using VM instead of dual boot, I used to do that. I have Virtual Box installed and I had multiple linux OSs as well as windows. However, one issue with VB is that it kind of lacks full hardware support. I mean, I tried installing my printer from windows on VB, I connected it to my USB port and selected it in the VB settings, however the installer didn't detect it. I had a similar issue once when I tried to connect a Galaxy s3 and use Odin to flash a ROM, same thing happened... Odin didn't detect the phone. Another issue I felt, when I installed Ubuntu on the VM, is that it was veryyy ultimately slow! I am not sure, maybe was because I installed the 64-bit version. In all cases, VB is a great virtual machine when it comes to using an OS in a sandboxed mode. It doesn't give you enough flexibility and integration. At least, that's what I felt while using it.

OK, I tried turning off refit, I got the same result. When I boot with Command+R I get the internet recovery. I guess I'm gona format and reinstall. By the way chscag, since you seem to be familiar with refit, I have a question. If I want to reinstall OS X by formatting the Macintosh HD partition and not touching my linux partition will I be able to boot back into Ubuntu (with or without refit) after installing OS X?

If I want to reinstall OS X by formatting the Macintosh HD partition and not touching my linux partition will I be able to boot back into Ubuntu (with or without refit) after installing OS X?

With rEFIt installed yes, provided you don't mess with the GRUB boot loader. Without rEFIt, you won't be able to get to the Ubuntu partition even by holding down the Option key. The rEFIt boot manager is a really neat program because it "understands" the Mac EFI.